At $18,357 per pupil, Bell City R-Ii ranks #72 of 552 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending (Missouri districts). NCES F-33 finance data.
199
Total Enrollment
2
Schools
$18,357
Per-Pupil Spending
Elementary, Combined
School Types
District-Level NCES Analysis
Bell City R-Ii operates 2 public schools serving 199 students, placing it among the smallest districts in Missouri. The school portfolio breaks down into 1 elementary, 1 combined schools, a small enough portfolio that most families will interact with nearly every campus in the district at some point. These enrollment and school figures come from the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 release, and the district is based in Stoddard County.
Per-pupil expenditure runs $18,357 according to the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey, in the upper half of 552 Missouri districts by per-pupil spending. See how Missouri compares in our national per-pupil spending analysis. The funding mix is 51.1% local, 25.8% state, and 23.1% federal, a local-revenue-heavy mix that leaves the district more exposed to property-tax swings and local ballot measures than state-funded peers.
and 12.0% chronic absenteeism from the 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection. Demographically, the student body averages 94.8% White, 2.6% Hispanic or Latino, 0.9% African American across the district's schools.
Its largest campus is Bell City Elem., enrolling 105 students (54% of the district's total enrollment).
Enrollment across the district's NCES-reporting campuses grew 6.5% between 2022-23 and 2023-24 (199 to 212 students), while the student-teacher ratio held roughly steady, per the NCES Common Core of Data annual universe files.
Of the district's $3,949,000 in reported FY2023 expenditures, 53.3% went to instruction, 33.6% to support services, and 6.4% to capital outlay, a fairly typical instruction/support/capital split for a public school district. Figures come from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey's function-level breakdown, not the aggregate per-pupil figure above.
Bell City Elem. accounts for 52.8% of all Bell City R-Ii student enrollment
That is an overwhelming concentration, leaving the rest of Bell City R-Ii a distant remainder — means Bell City R-Ii-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade band: elementary. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how the district allocates programs, capital, or staff. Because it contains a majority of the affected population, enrollment-weighted aggregates will sit closer to this entity's reported fields than to those of smaller peers; an unweighted entity count answers a different question.
Bell City R-Ii reports 52.3% free-lunch eligibility
The reported share clears the 50% majority mark. Title I operates under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), but its statutory allocation uses additional LEA-level counts and rules not represented by this average. This percentage is an economic-need context measure; it does not establish a Title I award, show dollars received, or describe how funds are distributed among campuses.
Bell City R-Ii chronic absenteeism rate is 12.0% — low (typically associated with lower-than-average attendance disruption; districts in this range often have attendance interventions, robust transportation, or smaller catchments that reduce barriers)
chronic absenteeism rate is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: a student is chronically absent if they miss ≥10% of enrolled days for any reason, illness, family obligations, or disengagement Lower values often correlate with smaller scale and population characteristics rather than higher resource budgets per se.
Bell City R-Ii has 2 schools, including 1 elementary, 1 combined. Total enrollment is 199 students.
How much does Bell City R-Ii spend per student?
Bell City R-Ii spends $18,357 per student.
What is the demographic composition of Bell City R-Ii?
Bell City R-Ii students are 94.8% White, 2.6% Hispanic or Latino, 0.9% African American, 0.6% Asian, averaged across 2 schools. Source: NCES CCD Membership 2024-25.